Martinelli Environmental Graphics workers Tommy Scampli, top left, Jon Stevens, top right, and Will McCurtin, bottom, put letters up on the new building for SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) at 654 Mission Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, May 19, 2009. less

Martinelli Environmental Graphics workers Tommy Scampli, top left, Jon Stevens, top right, and Will McCurtin, bottom, put letters up on the new building for SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) at ... more

Photo: Hardy Wilson, The Chronicle

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An exterior view of the new building for SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) at 654 Mission Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, May 19, 2009.

An exterior view of the new building for SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) at 654 Mission Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, May 19, 2009.

Photo: Hardy Wilson, The Chronicle

Image 3 of 3

SPUR moves into new Urban Center

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San Francisco's South of Market was a weary blur of rooming houses and office buildings in 1960 when a new advocacy group calling itself the Planning and Urban Renewal Association - SPUR for short - declared the neighborhood to be ripe for change, the city's "most blighted area."

These days the scene is quite different, with a park-topped convention center surrounded by upscale hotels and cultural facilities - and the newest building of all, SPUR's home.

"Ten years ago we decided to be more effective, more public - we wanted to take planning retail," recalled Jim Chappell, who was hired as executive director in 1994 and now heads SPUR's Citizen Planning Institute.

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When Chappell took the helm he was one of two employees; now there's a staff of 18 that on Friday will formally open its four-story, 14,065-square-foot home at 654 Mission St.

While other nonprofit groups in large cities have spaces devoted to architecture and land use, the SPUR Urban Center may be the first built from the ground up. And while the third floor is reserved for offices, the rest is aimed at public outreach.

Working down from the top: The fourth floor will offer a sunny terrace as well as a research library containing reports on transportation planning, municipal governance, neighborhood design and similarly wonkish topics.

The second floor is a meeting space for the talks that SPUR hosts almost daily - last month's lunchtime forums included "Waterfronts in Sweden" - and the ground floor is devoted to a gallery that open Friday with an exhibition exploring the different forces that have shaped the city's landscape, from 19th century oligarchs to 21st century "eco-urbanists."

It's a saga in which SPUR itself has played a role, earning vilification as well as respect along the way.

Like other establishment forces of the era, SPUR saw urban renewal as a necessity if San Francisco was to forge a place for itself in the national economy; indeed, it served as the official citizens advisory group to all projects undertaken by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.

That connection with government and corporate forces gave SPUR an influential voice - but also made it a villain to activists on the left. In their eyes, urban renewal was an assault on minorities and the poor. Downtown towers? An assault on the sky.

SPUR's current leadership prefers to stress such early efforts as the successful push to win regional approval for BART, or its long campaign to reform Muni.

"Even in the 'bad old days,' SPUR was doing major advocacy to get BART built, to get neighborhoods improved," said Gabe Metcalf, executive director since 2005. The 38-year-old Metcalf points out "I wasn't born yet" when block-clearing efforts such as the Western Addition redevelopment began.

Today, SPUR touts the virtues of bicycle paths. The "Renewal" in its name was switched to "Research" long ago. But it still thinks big: The 70-member board of directors approved a policy recommendation in January that called for major high-density office growth downtown, although the report conceded "This will involve major changes beyond the level with which San Francisco typically is comfortable."

The goal is to concentrate growth near transit, getting cars off the road and helping the Bay Area do its part in the fight against global warming: "The important thing that needs to happen environmentally in the United States is that we need to steer growth into existing cities," Metcalf said. "People are no longer afraid to think of big plans, but we do so tempered by the memory of past failures."

One big plan is the glassy Urban Center designed by Pfau Long Architecture, a tranquil presence on Mission Street within a stone's throw of the museums and towers that have redefined South of Market.

The price tag for the center is $18 million when land costs and all related expenses are tallied. So far, SPUR has raised $14 million.

"We're going to have to keep working hard" to finish the fundraising, said a confident Metcalf. "This is a heavy lift."

The SPUR Urban Center is located at 654 Mission St. It formally opens to the public at 10 a.m. on Friday and Saturday with tours and activities.

Friday also marks the opening of "Agents of Change: Civic Idealism & the Making of San Francisco." The exhibition will explore six distinct strands of activism, touching on everything from the City Beautiful movement to the anti-high-rise crusades.

The exhibition, which runs until Nov. 15, will be augmented by evening panels and lunchtime talks. For more on the exhibition and the Urban Center, call (415) 781-8726 or go to www.spur.org